Evening Brief: Thursday, August 4, 2016

Tonight’s Evening Brief is brought to you by the Canadian Climate Forum – disseminating and applying evidence-based climate knowledge for a safer and more sustainable Canada. Register today for Symposium 2016 – Moving Towards Sustainable Energy this October 20-21 in Ottawa.
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The Lead:

We begin tonight with — are you in or are you out? The Conservative Party of Canada announced its early leadership debate schedule yesterday, including two match-ups in November and December. But the party’s deadline for candidates to declare isn’t until February 24, which means major players with national name recognition like former defence minister Peter MacKay and television personality Kevin O’Leary can wait until after the New Year to jump in. Our Janice Dickson talked to some of the candidates who’ve already declared about the prospect of some candidates missing the early debates. Tony Clement and Michael Chong say the water’s fine and everyone who’s jumping in should jump now. Here’s Dickson’s piece.

Hunter Tootoo says he will not resign his House of Commons seat after his admission Wednesday that he engaged in an “inappropriate relationship.” The Nunavut MP, who quit the Liberal cabinet and caucus two months ago to deal with an alcohol addiction, plans to embark on a tour of his riding to reach out to constituents. Here’s his CBC interview.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo next week as part of a tour of East Africa to collect information about a possible future Canadian peacekeeping mission. CP has that story.

In London, Bank of England governor Mark Carney unveiled what his chief economist called a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” today in the form of an interest rate cut and stimulus package to fend off a Brexit crash. The BoE reduced interest rates by 25 basis points to a record-low 0.25 per cent and pledged to buy 60 billion pounds ($79 billion) of government bonds with newly created money over the next six months. Of two new stimulus schemes, “one will buy 10 billion pounds of high-grade corporate debt, the other – potentially worth up to 100 billion pounds – is to ensure banks pass on the full rate cut to borrowers,” reports Reuters.